Do You ‘Know It Already’ Or Do You ‘Apply And Experience’?

I saw this during so many training sessions and I with people around me. They learn about a new technique and immediately understand it is something they know and don’t need to use.

Basically people can be divided into two groups, those who take action and those who don’t. Which kind of person are you?

Many people find it difficult to manage the huge amount of information they are facing. So what do they do? They go out and learn about new techniques, methods and tools. This is strange I think… but more on that later.

When they learn about the new methods, they first think it is like magic! This is the Holy Grail, or the ingredient they were missing… Fast forward five minutes…

Yeah… most of the technique is stuff they already know, and it is not easier to manage all their information this way, so… let’s just have a look for something new, again.

And so they go from training to book, from book to ‘guru’, from ‘guru’ to method.

In the end, they ‘know’ so much about managing their time, themselves and their information, but they haven’t achieved anything yet!

To be honest, I was like that as well. I wanted to learn more and more about writing, assisting people, business, etc. But when I look back at all the training courses I did, I must admit that they are basically all the same.

What held me back was that I was thinking there was a secret technique which could solve all my problems and help me move forward instantly. But there is no such thing. There are however basic principles that help me move forward on a daily basis, but only when I apply them.

One of the most important principles is that I apply what I know, test what I do and learn on a daily basis. When I do that, I notice that I move forward. And when I learn some new method, I test it. Fortunately I don’t focus on new things all the time. And if I learn something new, I make sure I only learn from trustworthy sources, not just from anyone.

And when I learn from a good source, I do just like Nike says, I ‘just do it’, without thinking. Even when I ‘think’ I know the individual steps and techniques. I noticed before that when I over-think and assume this won’t work, I won’t do it (and that has resulted in stagnation too often).

What I mean with all of this is that you should apply what you learn and guard the door to your mind heavily. When there is a new method, you use it and you learn from it.

Don’t just know, apply!

Tags: know and understand, new ideas, test and try